Popular Science Monthly 



563 



It Would Take a Book to List the 

 World's Soap Curiosities 



THERE are varieties of soaps 

 to suit every taste and clime. 

 There is the dainty fit-the-palm toilet 

 soaps of the harem, with the national 

 star-and-crescent emblems of Turkey 

 inscribed on them; the soaps of the 

 Holy Land and Armenia, with their 

 Arabic legends; the floating, violet- 

 perfumed soaps of the Greek coast; 

 the human-fat toilet soaps of Paris, 

 and others too numerous to mention. 



The tw^o soaps illustrated below, 

 however, may be put in the class of the 

 super-curious. One is the primitive 

 Chinese rice-bran soap and the other 

 is the clay-ball, floating soap so 

 popular with the natives of India. 

 With each purchase of rice the Chinese 

 housewife expects a small quantity of 

 rice-bran. About a teaspoonful of 

 this bran is placed in a small muslin 

 bag and boiling hot water poured over 

 it, making a thin, gruel-like fluid. 

 Using the bag as a friction brush the skin is 

 effectively cleaned without utilizing any of 

 the animal fats. 



The clay-ball soap is made of copra oil, 

 potash, resin and a clay resembling in- 

 fusorial earth. The color ranges from 

 dark brown to black brown. The dusky- 

 skinned boys of the Malabar Coast not only 

 use this soap for toilet purposes but they 

 play ball in the water with it. 



This type of watering trough provides a resting-place 

 for pedestrians and a shelter from sun and wind for 

 the horses. It takes up comparatively little space 



The Two-in-One Idea as Applied to 

 Watering Troughs 



THE commodious and substantial-look- 

 ing street rest, shown in the illustra- 

 tion, is an example of the way the citizens of 

 San Francisco conserve their street space 

 and combine utility with ornamentation. 

 Formerly an old-fashioned watering trough 

 on four massive legs took up about thirty- 

 six square feet of the corner, which is an 

 exceptionally busy one near 

 the heart of the city. 

 The new arrange- 

 ment shuts ofT the 

 sight of the water- 

 ing trough en- 

 tirely from the 

 sidewalk and pro- 

 vides at the same 

 time a resting 

 place for pedes- 

 trians and a shel- 

 ter from sun and 

 wind for the horses. 

 The seat and trough are of 

 concrete and the back of the 

 seat is so wide and high that 

 there is no danger of splashing. 

 The trough is arranged at a 

 convenient height, so that 

 horses may drink withput the 

 driver being compelled to get 

 down to loosen the check-rein. 



Above: The clay-ball 

 soap used in India is 

 made of copra oil, resin, 

 F>otash and clay. At 

 left: Chinese rice-bran 

 soap. Both of these 

 soaps cleanse by fric- 

 tion rather than lather 



